Vikings keep winning – A-Team eliminated in semifinal
It was the closest they got to elimination. In the third set, Anders Mol and Christian Sorum faced an 11:12 deficit against Brazil’s Alison and Alvaro Filho. But a few blocks by Anders Mol resolved the situation. The Beachvolleyvikings advanced to the final (21:8, 18:21, 15:12) where they will play Qatar’s Cherif Samba and Ahmed Tijan, just as in the previous event.
Before the semifinal against Brazil, the Norwegians had posted wins against Cardenas/ Espinoza of Mexico, Dutchmen Varenhorst/ Van de Velde, US team Tri Bourne and Trevor Crabb and Poland’s Kantor/ Losiak. In total, Mol/ Sorum lost three sets on their way to the second Cancun event’s gold medal match. So things don’t seem to go as easy as they used to before the Covid break, but the Norwegians still keep winning.
Anders Mol is exhausted after his semifinal win
On the women’s side, America’s A-Team April Ross and Alix Klineman produced their first semifinal appearance at the Cancun Hub in Mexico. The US team posted rather easy wins in pool play but had to fight hard in the knock-out round. In the round of 16, they defeated Clancy/ Artacho del Solar of Australia in three sets before playing another tie-break match against China’s Wang/X. Y. Xia. In the semifinal, they played young upcoming team Makroguzova/Kholomina. The Russians won the first set in extended points and showed a strong performance in the second as well. With extreme consistency, the youngsters also took the second set to advance to the gold medal match (22:20, 21:18). Their comment:
“We watched the A-Team on video and this win was very hard work.”
In the women’s final, Russia will play Agatha / Duda of Brazil. The medal matches are played on Monday and you can follow them on the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Youtube channel.
